Is it possible to select a face in the UV editor and find it in the 3D View?
In the header of the UV editor window there's a button named "keep UV and edit mode mesh selection in sync", an icon with an arrow pointing to a cube mesh.

That resolve your problem.
Consider that also in the UV window you can choose if to work with vertices, edges or faces!
Notealso: if this button is selected, you can't edit the UV islands.